


Three Shiros and A Keith

by ilovelocust



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Shiro, Canon keith, Champion Shiro, M/M, garrison shiro
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-19
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-11-02 08:50:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10941081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilovelocust/pseuds/ilovelocust
Summary: After an accident with an alien race's holy relic, Shiro and Keith are on the run from the police and Lotor's minions. Would be easy if they didn't have two surprise guests along for the ride. The relic has pulled the Champion, a Shiro who never escaped the arena, and Takashi, a Shiro who has yet to go on the Kerberos mission, into their universe. Now they need to escape, keep the relic out of Lotor's hands, and figure out how to make three very different Shiros get along.





	1. Three Shiros

**Author's Note:**

> I've been taunting my readers on Tumblr with this idea, and figured I should go ahead and get started on it.

Keith desperately needs to cough. Each thumping footstep above him rains dust and dirt down into his eyes and nose, choking him on each breath in. He can’t make a sound. Any noise will give away their position and force them to fight and run again. They might not be able to find another location to hide before they are surrounded.

The footsteps stop. The officer is listening. Takashi’s wide eyes meet his own. They both hold their breathes and wait. One, two…ten seconds, the alien’s footsteps can be heard thumping their way out the door. They’re safe for now. As soon as the building is completely clear of police, they can crawl out from their hiding spot and figure out their next step. 

Keith squeezes Takashi’s still human right hand, and gets a genuine smile in return. He’s been doing a surprisingly good job of keeping up for someone who was thrown into a life or death situation with no warning or explanation. His clothes are a lot mussed, the standard officer wear worn around the Garrison wasn’t meant to go squeezing through crawl spaces, and he’s got a nasty burn from a twitchy temple guard that didn’t understand the meaning of not resisting arrest, but overall he’s holding up better than expected. Then again, if Keith’s guess about the situation is correct, Takashi is likely to age into one of the two seasoned fighters that are currently guarding the entrance to their crawlspace. Of course, he’s already good at keeping his head under stress.

Shiro and the Champion, dubbed so after the fifth time Keith called ‘Shiro’ in the chase and got three yeses, have yet to ease at the guard’s departure. Hopefully that’s just their paranoia, and not a sign that a fight is still likely. He doesn’t want anyone else to die just because they are doing their job. Shiro and Keith hadn’t had much of a choice if they didn’t want Lotor’s mooks to get a hold of the device, but they had stolen a holy relic. The police weren’t doing anything wrong by trying to apprehend them.

Not that everyone in their party seemed to care about if a death was deserved. The Champion is confusing. His first reaction on seeing Keith was to drop his guard and kiss him hard, like he was a dream liable to go up in smoke any second. His second, to hug him tight in both his Galra arms and whisper his name like a prayer. His third, to take a defensive position in front of Keith when Shiro tried to intervene. Those weren’t the actions of someone without emotions or who didn’t care about others, but the way he killed that temple guard. The Champion had cut him down without hesitation. No trying to talk him down or subdue him. Just one second he had a gun pulled on them, and the next there was a hole in his chest. Champion hadn’t even watched his body hit the floor. The most expression he’d shown over killing a man was to look sheepish at Keith’s expression of horror. That wasn’t a situation where sheepishness was an appropriate response.

There is a bang, as the door leading into the building slams shut. The officers must have deemed them not in this building. Shiro holds up his hand to wait, and carefully sneaks up to the floor above. His quiet steps out of the room barely cause a few puffs of dust. The wait for him is nerve wracking. What happens if there is a still a guard in the building? Will Shiro try to lead them off, or subdue him and come back for Keith? Things are hard enough with their guests tagging along. He doesn’t want to have to search for Shiro too.

“They’ve moved on.” Shiro’s says softly from the door, “It’s safe to come out, but keep quiet.”

Time to try and salvage this mess.


	2. So what do you want to talk about?

The Champion is the first to scramble out. Keith follows, and as soon as his head clears the floor, he’s greeted by two separate metal hands. He can already see the dirty looks forming between Shiro and the Champion, so he cuts it off at the pass and grabs them both. It does not escape his notice, that his hand is the only one offered to help Takashi out.

Shiro hails the Castle to plan an extraction, while Keith sends calming stay put thoughts to Red. She’s wanted to come down since the first confrontation with Lotor’s men in the temple. Keith’s been having to constantly tell her no, every free moment he gets. Despite being the smallest of the lions, she’s still far too big to fit in the narrow over built streets of this city. Even landing would cause major structural damage to the densely packed buildings and possibly hundreds to thousands of deaths depending on the area. Besides, he’s not terribly fond of the idea of dying to a piece of falling debri from Red trying to rescue him when he doesn’t need it.

Takashi and Champion, with nothing better to do, are just kind of staring at each other. Their matching disturbed expressions while they size the other up, is honestly one of the funnier things he’s seen in a while. No wait, he takes that back, their synced raised eyebrows of confusion is way better. Keith waves them off and tries to get his smile under control. They probably wouldn’t appreciate the humor right now.

“Frick!” Shiro shouts. Keith spins around to see what’s wrong. Shiro points towards his ear, “Comms cut out, while we were talking. We’re being jammed.” Keith flips on his own comm, and tries to hail the Castle himself. Static.

“Can they track us through those?” Takashi asks. Looking between the two of them in worry.

“No.” Keith answers. There is a whole long technical explanation why, but he doesn’t really understand it in the first place and he’s busy. He flips through a couple more channels, no change in results.

“Are you certain?” Takashi hasn’t seemed to wrap his head around space technology working different than what they have back on Earth yet. He’s only had about an hour to adjust, but it’s still a little annoying. Keith gives up on his search. Everything is static. They aren’t getting through.

“Yes, we’re certain.” Shiro says, then directs himself to Keith, “I updated Allura on our situation. She’s going to contact the planetary government and try to talk them into letting us go.”

“In the meantime, I assume we’re going to try and get off planet.” Champion butts in. It’s not a bad idea. No offense to Allura’s negotiation skills, but they stole an item the local religion credits with keeping them safe from the Empire for thousands of years. He really doubts they are going to just let them go.

“In the meantime,” Shiro’s tone is too aggressive. His patience is far too thin for this early in the conversation. Keith’s never seen anyone short of Slav get under Shiro’s skin this fast just by being in the area, “We are going to sit tight and give her a chance to work. Any route to escape we take has a high chance of us having to fight our way out.”

“If every guard on this planet is the same quality as the ones we’ve seen so far, that shouldn’t be a problem.” Champion says confidently. He’s not wrong. Keith could fight his way out on his own if he had to, and he’d actually try not to kill anyone unnecessarily.

“The problem is we’re not going to risk anyones lives unless we absolutely have to. We’re going to stay here. If you don’t like that, you know where the door is. No one is forcing you to stay.” Shiro replies.

Champion and Shiro stare each other down for a moment. Shiro wins. Champion looks over to Keith instead, “How about it, you want to blow this popsicle stand with me?” He asks. They’ve just met. He may be a Shiro. That comes with privileges, but not enough that he’s abandoning his Shiro. Keith shakes his head, “Guess I’m staying then.”

That’s that. Apparently they get to stick together, and Keith doesn’t need to feel guilty about dragging someone into a universe only to abandon them.

Also, now none of them have anything to do…Boy is this awkward.

Takashi shifts uncomfortably from foot to foot, then grimaces when that jostles his burn. Damn, he’d forgotten he was injured, “Do you want me to take a look at that? I’ve got some tweezers if anythings stuck in it.” That was a problem with burn wounds right? Damn, his first aid class had been the semester he and Shiro started dating. He’d memorized everything long enough to pass, and then completely forgot it in favor of things like how best to make the hot boy blush.

Takashi gives him a small amused smile, “Do you actually remember how to treat a burn?” Keith scowls at him and Takashi laughs. Calling him out was completely unnecessary, thank you very much.

“I’ll handle it.” Shiro says, walking forward and taking his younger self by the shoulder. At least, Keith thinks Takashi is the youngest, “Come on, there’s a bathroom a little ways down that might have running water.” He starts guiding him out the hall, “Keith you come too. I’m sure you’ve squirreled something away in those pouches of yours that might be handy.” Definite maybe, things did tend to accumulate in his belt pouches, but they never seemed to be the things he needed.

They all relocate, and thankfully the bathroom does have clean running water. He doesn’t ask why, he just accepts his good fortune.

Shiro works on caring for the wound, while Champion and Keith stare on. The only acknowledgment Shiro gives to the former is a quick snipe to stop standing in his blind spot.

“So,” Takashi breaks in when the silence finally gets too oppressive for him, “Is this some sort of bad future, or just generic time shenanigans?”

“What makes you think its bad?” Keith asks. Sure they’d done a bit of running from the law, but really nothing too terrible had happened around him yet.

“Well I mean…” Takashi looks down meaningfully at Shiro’s prosthetic. Shiro’s back muscles go tight, but he doesn’t stop what he’s doing.

“I doubt it’s just time. I have no memory of this happening, and I doubt I’ll choose to downgrade back to flesh in the future.” Champion gestures towards Shiro’s left arm.

Shiro stops and glares up at him, “Are you done.” His voice is clipped. Champion scoffs, but doesn’t reply. Shiro looks back at Takashi. He is looking sheepish in the appropriate situation, “You’re from an alternate universe. We accidentally activated a device meant to gather information from multiple universes, and it apparently does so by bringing doubles like you here. We’ll send you home, as soon as we get back to the Castle and figure out how it works.”

“So this isn’t my future.” Takashi says in relief. Shiro starts wrapping the wound up. Turns out for once Keith did have something useful in his pouches. Who knows how old the gauze is, but it’s cleaner than someone’s shirt.

“Don’t know.” Shiro says, then adds, “Are you going to Kerberos?”

“In a couple months,” The look of pride that flashes across his face is painful to see. He remembers when Shiro looked like that. Dragging Keith out on his hover bike. Taking him on a spin through the desert just the two of them, then telling him under the stars that he’d been selected. Did Takashi do that for his Keith? Looking so happy that Keith almost forgot he was going to alone for nearly a year.

“Maybe, then. That’s where all this happened for me.” Shiro says quietly. He glances up at Champion, “Was it the same for you?” The Champion doesn’t meet his eyes, but nods stiffly. Looks like Takashi is the only one still capable of thinking of Kerberos as a good thing.

“Are you saying I shouldn’t go?” Takashi is looking between Shiro and Champion. Eyes flitting to the obvious bad things written on their skins.

“You might as well,” Champion says, “You stay behind and you’ll just die with everyone else at the Garrison, when the Empire glasses it.” Wait what?

“What are you talking about? When the Galra glass the Garrison?” Keith asks, in a mild panic. Do they need to be heading back to Earth with the lions?

“They conquered Earth, and bombed the Garrison from orbit shortly after I became a gladiator.” Champion’s eyebrows knit together as he looks at Keith. Confused by his confusion.

Keith lets out a sigh of relief, “That didn’t happen in our universe. It was over a year before Shiro came back, and the Garrison was still there when we left.” He explains.

“So go and lose an arm, or stay and risk dying? Wonderful options, you’re giving me,” Takashi cuts back in.

“Or you could just get the lions early, and skip the whole being a gladiator thing.” Shiro says. Keith likes that plan. He’s sure Takashi’s Keith would like that plan too.

“Lions?” Takashi asks, quirking his head to the side.

“They’re…” Keith starts, then stops. How do you describe flying around in magical space lions without sounding like an idiot, “I’ll show you when we get out of here. Easier than explaining.” They looked much more impressive in person, than they sounded in theory.

“Done,” Shiro announces, and with that, their one source of entertainment evaporates. The conversation dies an untimely death as they move out of the cramped bathroom…

“Anyone got any cards?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nearly broke this chapter up into separate parts, but I’m glad I decided to keep it together. I know normally the stuff they are talking about would be revealed later in the story, but really, when an alternate universe you shows up, you start comparing notes.
> 
> Constructive criticism and questions are always welcome.


	3. War

They’re playing hearts, because none of them are carrying anything of value worth betting, and he isn’t drunk enough to be talked into losing a game of strip poker. Much better to play a game where the three other parties don’t have motivation to gang up on him…Oh…that’s a thought worth examining more closely, later.

Takashi plays the last card of the round, and that’s game. Shiro has officially kicked all their asses. God, he’s bored of playing cards. Also hungry. Maybe? Yes, it’s his lucky day, after all. The weird alien snack bar he’d picked up at their last stop on a space station is still in his left pouch. Score. He’s just about to take a bite, when he notices the three pairs of grey eyes trained on him. Right, no ones had dinner, “Um, you guys want to split?” Won’t be much for any of them, but should keep stomachs from growling at least.

Champion and Shiro both shake their heads as Takashi reaches out a hand, “Sure,” He says eagerly. Keith breaks him off half and waits for him to take his first bite. Takashi’s face puckers up like he just bit into a lemon. Which is a pretty apt description of the flavor. There’s a reason he never got around to eating this bar. Keith snickers, as Takashi chokes it down and sends him a big eyed look of betrayal. He doesn’t feel the slightest bit guilty. Takashi turns to Shiro instead, “I can’t believe you let my sweet Keith grow up to be such a mean person,” He says accusingly.

Shiro shrugs, “He did that all on his own.”

Keith snorts, “Like either of you are innocent.” People wouldn’t call him Golden Boy, if they knew how Shiro had behaved around his friends.

“I don’t know what you could possibly mean.” Shiro says all false innocence, putting a hand to his chest.

“Two words. Alarm Clock.” Remote control installed into his alarm that let Shiro change it’s time whenever he wanted. Keith had spent a week of confusion arriving at class progressively earlier and earlier until his clock finally went off at 1 AM on a Saturday and he realized who he needed to murder.

He gets three smiles of fond remembrance. Ah, so everyone in the room is guilty as sin and fair game then.

Keith finishes off his half of the bar. Still just as sour as he remembers it, but way better than nothing. Which is what he has now. What are they going to do for food? “Hey Shiro, how long are we going to give Allura before we try and get off planet on our own?”

Shiro breaks out of his revelry and looks out the small window. A small slice of the quickly darkening sky is visible, “We’ll start scouting around for an escape route tomorrow.” He says slowly, thinking, “If we haven’t heard from Allura by tomorrow night, we’ll make our own way.” Sounds like a reasonable plan. They won’t starve by then.

“If we can find a clear spot, Red will come pick us up.” Keith offers. That will save them the trouble of figuring out how this particular planet likes to arrange its shuttle controls.

“We’ll see. The only open places I know of are the space port, which will be heavily guarded, and the ocean, which we’ll have to find a secondary means of transportation to.” Eh, it’d been fun to see the looks on Takashi’s and Champion’s face when Red swooped down to pick them up, but he’s fine with any means that get him off planet and don’t involve maiming a bunch of people.

“I know this is a stupid question,” Takashi says from where he’s shuffling the cards, “But I’ve got to make sure we aren’t overlooking the obvious. Is there a reason we can’t just give these aliens back their device? If they get it back, they might not care as much about catching us and security could relax.”

He’s not wrong, but, “Lotor’s men have infiltrated the planet. We barely got the relic away from them this time.” And not without consequences as their two guests demonstrate, “If we give it back, they’ll steal it for themselves. Used properly this could easily turn the tide of the war in his favor.” Keith explains. Hard to believe this hadn’t come up sooner. The blind trust Takashi and Champion have shown by following them without question. Sure they were all being shot at, but Shiro and him could have easily been the bad guys.

“What war?” Champion cuts in. His tone suddenly harsh.

Keith looks over, Champion’s face is stone. Deadly serious, “The war against the Galra Empire.” Hadn’t Lotor’s name made it obvious?

“You’re a rebel?” Champion shouts. Jumping to his feet, shock and anger evident on his face. Keith follows him up, hand on his bayard. Is Champion a Galra sympathizer? He can see Shiro doing the same beside him, prepping to dart in at the first sign of violence. They’re both in their casual clothes from sneaking into the temple, but there are two of them. A fight would be in their favor. Champion spares one glance for Shiro, then focuses back on Keith, “Do you know what they do to rebels?” Champion hisses.

“No, not particularly,” Keith says, he takes a cautious step back. He needs space to properly wield his sword. Champion starts to follow him then stops, seeming to finally register the impending violence of the situation. Champion takes his own step back. Keith relaxes his grip, but doesn’t take his hand off his bayard. He won’t start a fight if Champion doesn’t.

Champion shakes his head, pulling on his forelock in a stress move Keith recognizes from Shiro, “The lucky ones are executed immediately.” His voice has gone low and quiet, “The interesting ones go to the druids. The examples are sent to the arena. Drugged up to the point they’re either too weak to fight or would tear their own mother to shreds.” That sounds like personal experience. Keith looks back at Shiro. Was killing the Empire’s examples something he had to do? He can’t tell from his face, “Keith, rebels die horrible deaths.” Champion continues, he doesn’t sound angry anymore, more borderline distraught. Is he worried about Keith’s safety? Oh.

Keith lets go of his bayard and steps forward. Ignoring Shiro’s hissing at him to stop, he places a hand gently on the front of Champion’s shoulder. Champion looks to his hand, to his face, and back again, “I am a paladin of Voltron. Defending the Universe from the likes of the Empire is my job.” He’d do it even if it wasn’t, but job was harder to argue against.

Champion’s hand reaches up and clasps his own, “You’re going to die, if you fight them.” He says, almost pleading.

Keith smiles up at him reassuringly, “I’m a little better armed than most.” To put it mildly, “When we get off planet, I’ll show you.” Voltron was probably still hibernating in his universe. Without that weapon, he can see how the fight might look hopeless. Though that hasn’t stopped the Blade.

Champion doesn’t believe him. He looks over Keith’s shoulder at Shiro and snarls, “You’re going to get him killed.”

Shiro hesitates a moment longer than Keith would like before replying, “Keith makes his own choices.” He does. Shiro may have given him the message that his help was needed, but he’s the one who jumped at the call.

“You should have talked him out of it,” Champion hisses back.

Shiro grimaces at that accusation. Keith yanks his hand free, jabbing a finger into Champion’s chest, “Shiro’s not responsible for me fighting the Empire. I chose to risk my life for the greater good, and you don’t get a say in that.” His sympathy for Champion’s concern has evaporated. He won’t be guilted out of doing what’s right.

“You’re going to die,” Champion repeats, hands falling to his sides.

“That’s my decision,” Keith replies, glaring at him.

Champion deflates when faced with his anger. Looking away.

“…right. Sooo, anyone want to play another round of hearts?” Takashi asks.

.

They play several more boring but blessedly silent games. 

Keith’s temper has cooled by the second round of hearts. Enough so, that he can look over at Champion’s rotating expressions of upset or guilt and feel bad for him again. 

He’s really convinced that Keith’s going to die. How can he judge too harshly, when he’d do the same in his position? If Takashi was talking about going to Kerberos despite knowing what was going to happen, he’d have gotten pretty pissed too. Didn’t matter if Takashi wasn’t his Shiro. They shared the history and pieces of personality that made him fall in love with Shiro in the first place. It’s impossible not to care about his well being. No, he’s pretty much has to forgive Champion. That or he’d be a massive hypocrite. Doesn’t mean he’s going to apologize. Asserting his ability to make his own decisions isn’t anything to feel sorry for.

He doesn’t know who starts it, but someone yawns and suddenly they are all doing it. It’s gotten pretty late. The sky outside long ago gave up even a hint of the sun. “I’m out.” Keith lays down his cards. He’d actually had a good hand for once, but he’s tired and the floor isn’t going to get less hard the longer he stays up.

“Sleep in here,” Shiro says, while rounding up all the cards. Nothings been said, but looks like everyone’s been ready to turn in for a while. Someone just had to go first.

“That the plan,” Keith replies. He’s seen way to many horror movies, to wander off in the abandoned building on his own. There might be alien hobos after his kidneys out there.

Keith stands up and looks around. Everywhere looks equally uncomfortable. Despite his survivalist reputation, he’s always managed to make sure he at least has a broken down couch to sleep on. Bruised hipbones and waking up sore aren’t worth saving a little bit of time by not scanning around apartment dumpsters for thrown out furniture.

“You can sleep on my lap if you want,” Champion says from behind him. The words sound like a come one, but when he turns, Champion is just looking at him. No quirked eyebrows or shit eating grin, that come with Shiro’s really obvious suggestive remarks, “I know how you hate sleeping on the floor,” He almost says yes, both because Champion is right about his hatred and as a sign that he’s forgiven the man, but from the corner of his eye, he catches the way Shiro has gritted his teeth.

“Thanks, but I think Shiro would miss having his teddy bear,” Keith says instead. He doesn’t know what Shiro’s problem with the Champion is, but he’s not going to do things that make him obviously uncomfortable just because they haven’t had a chance to talk about it yet.

Champion hides it well, but Keith has practice at reading Shirogane facial expressions. He still thinks he’s in the doghouse.

Their sleeping arrangements are the best they can make of a bad situation. Takashi rolls up his officer jacket in a makeshift pillow and crashes on his own in the cleanest spot he can find. Shiro picks a wall with a good view of the door, and Keith curls up in his lap as promised. Champion ends up along the same wall, about five feet away. Shiro has trouble sleeping if he can’t see the entrances of a room. He’s not surprised Champion’s the same way.

Despite his exhaustion, Keith has trouble falling asleep. Champion keeps looking over at him sadly whenever he thinks Keith’s eyes are closed. It hurts his heart to see, and makes his brain whirl with thoughts. He hasn’t asked, but the prisoner uniform Champion wears matches the one Keith found Shiro in. The only reasonable conclusion is that in his universe, he hasn’t escaped the Galra.

When Shiro first came back, he put on a brave face to lead their nascent team, but behind closed doors, he’d just wanted to hold and be held. He’d been so starved for kind touches, that on their days off they could lay together for hours doing nothing at all. Shiro is better now. He no longer needs those long periods of time except on very rare stressful occasions. The Champion, though, he’s just been freed from his cell for the first time in who knows how long, and he’s still alone.

Keith sighs, “Hey,” Keith smiles softly as the Champion looks over to him. He wiggles an arm free from Shiro’s hold, “You don’t have to sleep all the way over there,” He pats the ground beside them, “Come over here, and you can hold my hand while we sleep,” It’s a pitiful offering, but Champion looks at Keith like he just offered him the world. He scoots over and picks up Keith’s hand without hesitation. Holding it with both of his own. There we go, that’s better, “Night,” Keith settles against Shiro again, purposefully not looking up to see what Shiro thinks of this development. They’ll talk in private tomorrow. He needs to establish what boundaries with Shiro’s doubles will make him comfortable, but for now, they’ll settle for this. A little comfort for another hurt soul. Shiro can deal for one night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy cow, I did not expect this part to end up so long (This is what happens when I outline beforehand). 
> 
> Champion heavy chapter, but well, I’ve got a lot to establish with him. 
> 
> Also, up to ya’ll to decide who suggested strip poker.


	4. Sweet Dreams Are Made Of These

“Hey baby,” Shiro is close and warm, wrapped around his back. Hot breath tickling his neck and making him squirm. His hands wandering across Keith’s chest. If Shiro keeps teasing, Keith is going to explode. That or sweep his legs and get what he wants on his own, “We’ve been talking about you.” Shiro whispers huskily, before licking a hot stripe up Keith’s neck.

Keith shivers, “Yeah?” Oh god, he hopes they discussed something good.

Shiro drops his hand down to palm at his crotch. Keith moans, “Yeah, we couldn’t decide who got you, so we thought we’d share.” Oh. Suddenly Takashi is there. Looking all dashing in his pressed green uniform. Keith welcomes him and his eager mouth. Letting himself be boxed in and kissed. The happy middle to his Shirogane sandwich.

“Sharing’s nice.” Keith gasps as soon Takashi finishes with his mouth and starts working his sucking kisses down Keith’s front, “I like sharing.” He’ll convert to a Saturday morning cartoon’s morals if this is what sharing gets him.

Shiro chuckles, “Thought you would.” Takashi moves back, and Keith whines at the loss. At least until he sees who he’s making room for, Champion has gone the clothing optional route, and Keith just wants to lick those abs, “Now be a good boy, while we take care of you.” Shiro says from behind him. He’s going to be the best of boys.

Keith jerks, “Hey baby,” He creaks one eye open. He’s greeted by a Shiro with far too many clothes on. Dammit. He closes his eyes again. Maybe he can go back if he falls asleep now. “Oh no you don’t. I need to get up,” Shiro shakes his shoulder preventing him from going back under. 

Keith makes a noise like the angry sleepy cat he feels like at the moment. Stupid mornings. Stupid Shiro’s inability to skip his morning workouts. He opens his eyes again. Sometime in the night, he’d pulled Champion’s hand up to his chin and tucked close. The angle is awkward, but Champion hasn’t tried to take it back. In fact, he looks impossibly endeared at Keith’s pain with joining the conscious world, “I hate you,” Keith scowls at him. When he glances up, Shiro’s doing the twinsy thing with an identical expression, “You too. I hate you both. I’m going to sleep with Takashi instead.”

Shiro grins at him and kisses his nose, “You’ll have a hard time with that, babe. He’s already awake too.” A quick check, and yep, Takashi’s already starting his morning stretches in his undershirt. He stops long enough to wave at Keith. Stupid morning people. Mildish pink hue to the sky does not mean the sun is up.

With much protesting Keith gets vertical, letting Shiro can get out from under him. He then walks straight across the room to where Takashi has laid out his officer’s jacket while he works out. Keith nabs it then lays back down, pulling the green fabric up over his nose. They can all be freaks of nature together, he’s going to catch a few more Z’s before the day actually starts.

“He really hasn’t changed, has he.” Takashi says quietly.

“No, no he hasn’t,” Shiro replies. There might have been more, but he doesn’t catch it.

There is a best Shirogane competition, and as the universe leading expert on Shiro, Keith is naturally the judge. There is the feats of strength section, where Champion’s showmanship in bench pressing him gets him bonus points. The swimsuit section, which Shiro tries to balk at until Keith reminds him that he will be disqualified if he doesn’t show up in a speedo, and best of all the ‘Special Talents’ section. Takashi makes up for an otherwise lack luster overall score with that talented tongue he loves. Champion and Shiro try to call giving a blowjob to the judge cheating, but Keith lets them know they can both have an opportunity for extra points too when Takashi is done.

Something bumps him, and he’s painfully awake again. Keith groans. “Sorry, accident,” He has to open his eyes to figure out who’s talking to him. Takashi has plopped down beside him. Plucking at his shirt to get it off his sweaty skin. Shiro and Champion are still in the middle of the room doing sit ups. Are they competing? “I thought I had a pretty good routine, but I can’t keep up with those two.” Takashi says.

Sky’s actually a decent shade of blue now, guess he shouldn’t fall back asleep, “Mmmm, yeah,” Keith hums. A lot was terrible with the year Shiro was gone, but he can’t say the muscle development hasn’t been a aesthetically pleasing change.

“Hey!” Takashi pokes him in the cheek, “You’re supposed to say something to make me feel better.” Keith catches his finger and sits up.

He pokes Takashi’s chest in return, “I’m giving you motivation for improvement.”

Takashi gasps dramatically, covering his pecs with his hands, “You never complained about them before.”

“Yeah, but then you came home with those.” Keith points at the two that are still going, “Those are medal worthy, you’ve got to admit.”

“Ouch, I see how it is, go off get some bad ass scars and super buff, then suddenly your boyfriend doesn’t appreciate the original model anymore.” Takashi fakes a pout.

Keith snickers. He should probably keep from pushing the joking too far, wouldn’t want to give him a complex, “Ah, don’t feel too bad. I did tap that,” Keith emphasizes with a suggestive sweep of his eyes, “So obviously I approve.”

“That an offer?” Takashi gives him a cheeky smirk. Keith laughs and shoves him. He forgot how easily Shiro used to flirt. He hadn’t realized he missed this. Well, that’s depressing, “Too much?” Takashi asks, he’s stopped smiling.

“You’re fine. Just thought of something.” Keith reassures him. Shiro and Champion have finally finished working out, and Keith takes the distraction. He needed to talk to Shiro anyways, “I’ll be back in a minute.” He hops up, leaving Takashi’s jacket behind, to follow Shiro out of the room.

They only know of one room with a water source, so he has to wait for Champion to finish before he can finally get Shiro alone.

He shuts the door, as Champion leaves, “Hey, you got a moment?” Shiro looks up at him from where he’d ducked his head under the faucet. He’s a lot more red in the face than normal. Someone was showing off for his alternate universe selves.

“What’s up?” Shiro asks, giving him his full attention.

“We need talk about your doubles,” How to put this without being super awkward…no, no tactful way to do this, “Where do you want the…lines to be between them and me?”

“…lines? Like can you fuck Takashi?” Keith chokes at Shiro’s bluntness, heat sweeping his cheeks, “I mean if you want to, I’d understand.”

“No-wait, seriously? Champion too?” Fuck, there goes the serious conversation along with his brain processing power.

“You want to sleep with Champion?” Shiro asks with a small frown.

“I mean, imagine if there were two other me’s running around. Can you really say the thought wouldn’t cross your mind?” Shiro was magazine worthy in any universe. He really shouldn’t be judged for wanting to have them all.

“Keith,” Shiro scrubs at his hair, “I get the thought. I don’t mind, but Champion’s dangerous. You need to keep him at a distance.”

Dangerous? Well yeah, but, “I don’t think I need to worry about him. He seems a little too fond of me to suddenly attack.” The thing last night, when he found out Keith was a paladin just proved that. Champion was worried about Keith’s survival. He wasn’t going to hurt him.

“He’s not right in the head. You can’t know that he won’t turn on you no matter what he seems like,” Shiro insists, “Just trust me, okay,” That’s not fair. This is a conversation with time to discuss, not a trust situation.

“I need some kind of explanation. I’m pretty good at reading you,” Not most people, but Shiro he understood, “And I just see someone in a lot of pain.” That he could help with.

“He’s not me.” Shiro snaps, then sucks in a breath, before continuing more calmly, “It’s the eyes. He’s too far gone…” Shiro stares at his prosthetic hand for a moment, “I don’t want you getting hurt just because someone looks like me.”

Keith sighs. That’s not much better than trust me, “Look, if I feel even slightly in danger, I’ll back off and find you,” Promising to bring Shiro in in the case of danger is always bound to make him feel better, “But the guy just got out of a prison cell full of unfriendly people. I’m not just going to avoid him. If there is something you don’t want me doing because it makes you uncomfortable for reasons other than you think I’m going to get hurt, I won’t, but I’m not going to be an ass to someone who’s in pain for no reason.”

Shiro pinches the bridge of his nose, “You’re just going to ignore my warning aren’t you.” He didn’t have to sound so put upon. Being friendly to alternate versions of himself was one of the least dangerous things he’d done against Shiro’s suggestion.

Keith smiles, and catches Shiro’s hand so he can give it a squeeze, “If you can’t give me something better than it’s his eyes, yeah.”

Shiro looks at him for a second before giving in, “Just be careful okay.”

“Don’t worry, I will be.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shiro notices that Keith and Takashi are flirting while he works out. That’s why his mind went there immediately. 
> 
> Also, sorry for those who hoped for jealous Shiro, his issues with Champion aren’t that simple.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic might be a little slower on the updates than my last. This is the most active and relevant characters I've handled at once, and there is a lot of points I want to make sure I hit, so I'm having to plot out my chapters before writing them for once.
> 
> By the way, I'm terrible at tags. If you think there is a tag that should be added, as either a warning or to draw folks in. Please tell me. I'll appreciate it.


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